Growing up in southwest Reno I almost never went to downtown or Midtown. This was for a few reasons. The first being that Midtown wasn’t really developed then, and downtown didn’t have much to offer me.
But secondly, many people in Reno don’t venture very far from their home. South Reno people stay in the south and north Reno people stay in the north for the most part.
Two years ago, my freshman year of college, I moved out of southwest Reno for the first time into a quite unique neighborhood.
I live right next to the University of Nevada, Reno campus, and specifically right next to the new HERE apartments. My street is filled with sounds of cars driving and sirens blasting as it looks directly over I-80. And if the cars are quiet, the train rumbling down the tracks is quick to fill the silence. A street over from me is Roller Kingdom, which weirdly attracts both suspicious characters and children, a strange combination.
Fence that separates I-80 and E 9th St. and the train tracks that run through the street. Photographed by Macie King
Any student at UNR understands the tricky dynamic of having a campus near downtown, which in our case has casinos, hard on their luck gambling addicts and drifters. Living in my neighborhood amid an affordable housing crisis and a fentanyl epidemic has allowed me to witness these issues very closely.
I have been able to see a homeless camp grow from two tents to 20 in less than a week. Cars that were once abandoned are filled with clothes and blankets the next.
As I mentioned before, Roller Kingdom brings in quite the crowd. Behind the building you can find clothes, suitcases, needles, and occasionally a person overdosing. Ambulances and police are often making visits over to the bright pink and blue building.
The only thing separating my street from the freeway is a chain link fence. And often this fence is climbed through by the unhoused to set up camps surrounding the freeway. The view out of my front window is typically tents and trash scattered around the landscape surrounding the freeway.
To the right of my house are train tracks. Which also brings in a large unhoused population. Let me be clear though, people experiencing homelessness have never tried to harm me or any of my roommates. They stay to themselves and are really just looking for a place to sleep.
And I would say my neighborhood has been a wonderful place to live while attending college. Mainly because I’m saving $500 a year in parking passes. But also because it’s allowed me to squash my previous mindset about those experiencing homelessness and living in a neighborhood that’s not always sunshine and rainbows. I’ve also learned to be more appreciative of life in general. Seeing a person live in a tent with Reno’s weather during the winter is never easy to see and pushes me to invest time in my community and help whenever possible.